Air filters inside the car?
in [Toyota]
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From: C. E. White on 18 Mar 2010 00:41 "Ray O" <rokigawa(a)NOSPAMtristarassociates.com> wrote in message news:hnrk3k$1b0$1(a)news.eternal-september.org... ..... >> Do they have sulfur in the gas? > > I am not a chemist, but I believe so. Sulfur is found in some crude oil, not in others. Refineries are supposed to remove it, but removing it all is not always possible. Some catalytic converter types have more of a problem with sulfur than others. Under certain conditions these problematic converters can turn the sulfur in the exhaust stream into sulfur dioxide, which is the source of the rotten egg smell. The ones that aren't creating sulfur dioxide are creating sulfuric acid.....which is why almost all cars have at least part of the exhaust system downstream from the converter made out of stainless steel. I know that in the past Toyota used an engine management system / type of converter that was more sensitive to sulfur in the gas than most others. But almost any converter can create sulfur dioxide under some conditions. Changing brands of gasoline might help, but in many cases it won't since all the gasoline in a particular area may come form the same refinery no matter what brand it is sold under (the additive packages can still vary). A couple of years ago Shell screwed up in Louisiana and produced gas with excessively high levels of sulfur. Not only did this lead to a lot of rotten egg odors, it actually destroyed the fuel gauge pick-up in a lot of gasoline tanks. My first job after college was with an oil company in Arkansas. We had a couple of sour gas well - these are natural gas wells that have high concentrations of sulfur dioxide in the gas (it is removed before the gas is sold). I visited a gas plant where the sulfur dioxide was removed. It stank. My boss told me that was a good thing. He said as long as you could smell it, the concentration was too low to hurt you. If you couldn't smell it, then you were probably about to die - apparently higher concentrations kill your sense of smell and then kill you. Another time I was sent out to a well we were drilling. It was in an area know to have sour gas (gas with sulfur dioxide). I was there to observer some tests. During a slack period I was wondering around the site and noticed a single small diameter pipe going off over a hill. I followed it and at the other end there was a propane tank. Later I asked the tool pusher (think foreman) what that was for. He said that if the well blew out (if the gas blew out of the well out of control), he was supposed to go over the hill to the propane tank and open the valve. This would release propane under the well head. He then had a flare gun he would shoot into the propane so the whole well would light off. This was to make sure that a cloud of sulfur dioxide didn't blow to an inhabited area. While I was with the oil company, Shell had a sour gas well blow out and it burned for weeks before they could get it shut down. One more interesting thing about my trip to the well - it was within a few miles of where Bonney and Clyde were killed. There was an actual granite marker at the spot (and it was riddled with bullet impacts). Ed
From: C. E. White on 18 Mar 2010 10:17 "Scott in Florida" <MoveOn(a)Outa.here> wrote in message news:acc3q5de6ljkc8l47154gal9q7d9s9l04c(a)4ax.com... > On Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:41:38 -0400, "C. E. White" > <cewhite3remove(a)mindspring.com> wrote: > >>One more interesting thing about my trip to the well - it was within >>a few >>miles of where Bonney and Clyde were killed. There was an actual >>granite >>marker at the spot (and it was riddled with bullet impacts). >> >>Ed > > Like damned near every Stop sign in the rural South.... Unfortunately true. They paved the road by my farm a couple of years back. As part of the project they installed a couple of don't litter and sharp curve warnign signs. Within 24 hours both had ben shot ful of holes... I wish they would shoot up the beer bottles and old tires they throw out instead.... Ed
From: homepc on 18 Mar 2010 10:49 "Devil's_Advocate" <Devils_Advocate(a)devils_.xyx> wrote in message news:Xns9D3E7F126D7C2DevilsAdvocatedevils(a)216.196.97.142... > "homepc" <wiebe008(a)gmail.com> wrote : > >> >> Another thing to consider about air recirculation -- your new Corolla >> has a catalytic converter that may emit the smell of rotten eggs >> occasionally. To constantly recirculation the cabin air might >> exasperate the problem if you very sensitive to bad air quality. > > How so? The converter is outside, we're inside? > > The main thing we're sensitive to is breathing exhaust gases, so we need > it > closed all the time. The HM200 air purifier will really help IF we can > keep > it closed, but it appears we're gonna have to fight with it, because of > some > know-it-all Japanese engineer. > >> I have changed over to Shell gasoline during the last winter in an >> effort to combat the problem. > > Unless it vents into the cabin, we should be fine. > > > If you ever happen to get that rotten egg smell while starting your car with the defrost on, and then decide to recirculate the foul air while driving, your super duper air cleaner will probably take much longer to remove the offensive odor that it would if you just vented fresh air into the cabin for a while. Constantly recirculating air while your air conditioner is running may cause problems down the road for you too. The air conditioner core can develop a musty odor if it is never allowed to dry out properly over time. If you do get a musty kind of odor, a quick solution is to run the heat on high with the recirculation on, spray some Lysol inside the car, then close the doors, and allow the car to run for a while.
From: homepc on 18 Mar 2010 10:54 "Devil's_Advocate" <Devils_Advocate(a)devils_.xyx> wrote in message news:Xns9D3E7F126D7C2DevilsAdvocatedevils(a)216.196.97.142... > "homepc" <wiebe008(a)gmail.com> wrote : > >> >> Another thing to consider about air recirculation -- your new Corolla >> has a catalytic converter that may emit the smell of rotten eggs >> occasionally. To constantly recirculation the cabin air might >> exasperate the problem if you very sensitive to bad air quality. > > How so? The converter is outside, we're inside? > > The main thing we're sensitive to is breathing exhaust gases, so we need > it > closed all the time. The HM200 air purifier will really help IF we can > keep > it closed, but it appears we're gonna have to fight with it, because of > some > know-it-all Japanese engineer. > >> I have changed over to Shell gasoline during the last winter in an >> effort to combat the problem. > > Unless it vents into the cabin, we should be fine. > > > If you ever happen to get that rotten egg smell while starting your car with the defrost on, and then decide to recirculate the foul air while driving, your super duper air cleaner will probably take much longer to remove the offensive odor that it would if you just vented fresh air into the cabin for a while. Constantly recirculating air while your air conditioner is running may cause problems down the road for you too. The air conditioner core can develop a musty odor if it is never allowed to dry out properly over time. If you do get a musty kind of odor, a quick solution is to run the heat on high with the recirculation on, spray some Lysol inside the car, then close the doors, and allow the car to run for a while.
From: C. E. White on 18 Mar 2010 12:05
"Scott in Florida" <MoveOn(a)Outa.here> wrote in message news:48e4q5tcok0qiliomgb9lr73hfnf6ldu68(a)4ax.com... > LOL...well the beer bottles are a bit easier to remove if they > haven't been > shot full of buckshot. > > I used to live 'one beer' from the country store. I could count on > empty > (damn it) beer cans being on my front lawn, when I lived on the > Eastern > Shore of Virginia. My farm is on a realtively isolated stretch of road. It used to have several trees and old buildings that hid things from the road. It was not uncommon for me to find ten or fifteen empty beer bottles out behind the old barn. Hurricane Isabel knocked down the barn. After it was removed, I also removed all the trees that blocked the view from the road. Since I did that and the road was paved, the number of bottles has gone way down. Still I get the occasional tire dumped on the road. Used applainces were once a problem, but scrap prices got so high a couple of years back, people actually came on the farm to steal any that were left in the woods. It was sort of like reverse littering. Ed |